The present invention relates to a safety closure and, more particularly, to a tamper-evident closure cap for containers of the type containing pharmaceutical products.
Millions of dollars are wasted by companies discarding containers with pharmaceutical contents, which have been tampered with. As such containers are generally available to the public in drug stores or pharmacies and are displayed on shelves without supervision, they are often opened by individuals who may alter their content. The tampered containers must then be discarded since they represent a possible hazard to the user.
Applicant has already proposed in French Patent No. 2,657,066 a safety cap for the above type of containers, comprising an annular skirt for attachment to the neck of the container so as to prevent removal of the cap for the container, and a planar closure lid hinged to the skirt for movement between open and closed positions. The closure lid is provided with an outwardly projecting, manually graspable tab enabling one to move the closure lid from the closed position to the open position, the lid and tab being co-planar. A tamper-indicating ring extends between the closure lid and the skirt and is removably connected to both the lid and skirt by a plurality of spaced-apart frangible fingers, the ring having a portion extending about the contour of the tab in spaced relation therefrom to define a handle enabling the ring to be manually grasped and torn away from the cap prior to the initial opening of the lid. Since the closure lid is releasably connected to the skirt via the tamper-indicating ring by frangible fingers, unauthorized removal of such a ring provides evidence of tampering or initial opening.
However, since the handle of the ring extends in the same plane as the tab and closely adjacent thereto, it is possible for an unauthorized user to grasp between his fingers both the handle and tab and to displace the closure lid together with the tamper-indicating ring in a manner such as to break only the frangible fingers which connect the ring to the skirt, thereby opening the lid while the ring remains attached thereto. After having had access to the content of the container, the unauthorized user can then close the lid with the attached ring such as to cause alignment of the broken fingers and provide a visual appearance of intactness, therefore defeating the tamper-indicating feature of the cap.